Instead, this week we are going to focus on a couple of new decks and synergies that almost got there. If you are down for a good synergy—or what looks like a super happy fun time—I suggest sleeving up one of these.

Joseph Snyder earned Top 8 in the TCGPlayer event with a new take on some fairly well-established and very good cards... but he added them together and spun them into a new deck taking advantage of some different cross-synergies.

Duress, Liliana of the Veil, Ravenous Rats, Smallpox

Snyder's deck has a strong hand destruction theme. He can start on turn one with a Duress, then make you discard again with his Ravenous Rats. You are annoyed and you kill it; or maybe he gets a trade against your one-drop to boot. Did you play another creature? Bam! Smallpox!

Snyder's deck doesn't play a lot of cards we haven't seen before. The most "out there" one in his main is probably Smallpox. But anyone who remembers the last time Smallpox was legal in Standard—and the shenanigans that it gave rise to in that era's Solar Flare shell—know that Smallpox in Standard is more of a rediscovery than a newly blazed trail.

I really like how Snyder put these cards together. We don't see a lot of Smallpox- and Liliana-breaking of this stripe... and you have to wonder why. Once you see these cards together, it is sort of obvious that they would be great together!

Geralf's Messenger, Gravecrawler, Lingering Souls

Gravecrawler is a fine one for either of two different pipers Smallpox has to pay. Do you want to protect your Ravenous Rats? Have another Zombie on the battlefield? You can sacrifice a Gravecrawler in play and just get it back as soon as you have a spare Swamp.

Not only does Geralf's Messenger significantly blunt the bite of Smallpox there, but you still have a 4/3 in play after all that pugilism.

Lingering Souls is a fine card to discard to Smallpox, too... or, for that matter, Liliana of the Veil. Cards like Smallpox and Liliana of the Veil—that force both players to undertake some distasteful activity in equal measure—are a pain and a drain on both players. In theory, they are "even." With Smallpox, you can get a little ahead by playing it on the play (which just might put your opponent back to no lands); and if your opponent went second and ran a one-drop, you are doing an emotional lap around the room!

But still, while you both have to discard cards, you actually had to spend one, as well.

Liliana of the Veil, while leveling up, requires both players to discard a card. In either of these situations you can break the symmetry by discarding some kind of a renewable resource (like Lingering Souls, which has an easy flashback, or the buyback-body Gravecrawler).

There are tons and tons of subtle synergies in Snyder's deck... Like what if the opponent has an awesome guy and a crappy one? And you make your opponent sacrifice a creature with one of your "Edict" effects from Smallpox or Liliana of the Veil. Your opponent chuckles a bit and sacrifices the crappy creature.

Unless the awesome guy is really awesome... not a huge chance it can withstand a morbid Tragic Slip.

Far be it for me to undersell the presence of token creatures and token generators. Lingering Souls is not just a flashback spell that can help you recoup the up-tick process on Liliana of the Veil. It is also a token-maker! So when you have to sacrifice a creature to Smallpox? While the opponent is picking which mythic rare is going to go to the bin? You can send a 1/1 wooden nickel to the graveyard. Lingering Souls; Sorin, Lord of Innistrad; and Timely Reinforcements out of the sideboard all excel at producing a small creature you would not mind sacrificing to a symmetry. And Timely Reinforcements? You can even set yourself up with a little life loss to help ensure maximum Reinforcement!

So... a little Pox, a little White-Black Tokens, even a little Zombies.

With Wolfir Silverheart—by its lonesome, or as a target or beneficiary of one of his X-spells—Kurt can pair an elite combat creature with one of his smaller Elf threats, and present an attacker that doesn't roll over to Bonfire of the Damned (for all its virtues, Kurt's deck is still small creatures).

None of that, of course, is the single reason we are talking about this deck.

Crane's deck, in addition to being an Elves creature deck, is probably the fastest offensive combo deck in Standard at present. It has all kinds of lines, but its true explosiveness centers around Elvish Archdruid and Genesis Wave.

You don't even need a huge number of attackers with the right buff. Craterhoof Behemoth needs a Genesis Wave of a certain size, but if you can hit X=8 you are almost certain to enjoy the fruits of many a body, which will result in big pumps. If you have even just one or two additional attackers that can swing in this turn, you might easily be able to put the opponent to -30 or thereabouts in a single swing.

Given sufficiently critical mass, Ezuri is no less lethal than Craterhoof Behemoth when you have enough mana.

You know how Overrun is often game-over? What about if you can cast the Overrun not just because you got lucky and topdecked it? If you have Ezuri on the battlefield, every five mana you make is like an over—and over—and over again 'run. Every five mana will make all your potential attackers +3/+3.

Now, assuming you have some potential Elves to attack with (and that you got here with one or more big and profitable Genesis Waves), you might have plenty of Archdruid mana and tons of fodder to help it along.

Big Craterhoof Behemoth? Rich Archdruid feeding the "other" three-drop Elf lord? You know what is also a cool way to turn lots of mana and creatures in play into a win? Mortarpod! If you have twenty guys out and access to forty mana (not hard with twenty guys out, one of which is an active Elvish Archdruid, maybe with a little help from a Bell-Ringers) you can just Mortarpod the opponent out. Your Genesis Wave even finds it for you!

Crane finished second with this deck at the Buffalo Open, but when I look at this deck I see much of the same wealth of possibilities that made Wolf Run Ramp a breakout when Brian Sondag won his Open those many months ago. Crane's deck does so many things, and is such a fresh combination of consistency (twelve one-drops, Green Sun's Zenith), power, and flexibility that I am sure we are going to see it—or decks descended from it—in the remaining months leading up to Return to Ravnica.

Let's finish on a deck that didn't break open the Open Series... yet... but plays a brand new card from Magic 2013 that has all kinds of Johnnies talking:

The deck is built on synergy upon synergy, but the iconic one (if we can talk about a one-month-old card as being in some wise iconic) is probably Trading Post + Wurmcoil Engine. You have Wurmcoil Engine and—lo and behold, Wurmcoil Engine is an artifact—you sacrifice it to draw a card, leaving two 3/3 creatures in play. You can later sacrifice one of those creatures to re-buy your Wurmcoil Engine from the graveyard, and start the cycle anew! Because Wurmcoil Engine essentially has three bodies, even without the extra oomph from drawing a card, you can use one Wurmcoil Engine to draw and loop multiple artifacts.

And of course, it is a card-drawing cantrip of an artifact, which can help you to find your Trading Post and the lands to get this engine purring.

So... whether they made Top 8, a heartbreaking finals, or not the elimination rounds yet, Magic 2013 has already helped to produce several new archetypes with contributors like Duress and Arbor Elf... all the way to haymaker flagships like Trading Post. What new strategy are you going to try this weekend?